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Brexit no deal is relegation from Premier
League to 3rd Division - EU Trade Chair Karim
TRADE Chief MEP, Sajjad Karim, on 20 October 2017, has
challenged the Brexit no deal advocates saying they effectively want to relegate
the UK to 3rd division status. The comments by Mr Karim; who Chairs the
International Trade Committee's Monitoring Group for South Asia within the
European Parliament; echo a leaked treasury report that emphasizes the high risk
to Britain's economy if it was to exit the EU without a deal. The document
states that all the countries that have a free trade agreement with the EU or
preferential access as a developing country would have better access to the
single market than the UK. This would mean that Britain would have less access
to the single market than countries, such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh.
Pakistan's trade status; which was delivered as a British Government initiative
under David Cameron; with the EU, the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP+),
allows originating products to be imported into the EU at a reduced or zero rate
of duty. The scheme helps developing countries manage the new responsibilities
that come from ratifying and implementing 27 core international conventions on
human and labour rights, environmental protection and good governance.
Speaking in Brussels, Mr Karim said:- "There is great irony
in the situation we find ourselves in where the countries we, the UK, have
helped gain greater access to the EU could now end up having better access than
us. The UK has always been the best friend for Commonwealth countries in terms
of pursuing their EU interests, but without a deal, we would leave ourselves
with less access than many of those countries who we used to advocate for in the
EU. The EU is the largest trading partner of virtually every non-EU Commonwealth
country we willingly supported at an EU level. Naturally, they will have to
drift towards the remaining EU27 countries to protect their interests and this
will have a detrimental effect on our bilateral relations with such Commonwealth
countries also. Why then would we put ourselves in this situation? We cannot
allow the no deal preachers to effectively relegate the UK from the top tier of
trade to the lowest league. It simply should not be an option."
Did you know that:- Mr Karim was instrumental in
Pakistan gaining its coveted GSP+ trade status and in 2015 was awarded the
Sitara-i-Qaid-i-Azam; the highest national honour to non-Pakistanis for services
that have helped the country; joining ranks with the British Queen and Nelson
Mandela.
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